B. If You're Already in Business

If you are launching a website as part of an existing business, you must first decide whether you want to use the name of your business for at least one of your domain names. Most businesses do. That's why you'll find apple.com, landsend.com, toysrus.com and so on.
The importance of a strong brand on the Internet can't be overstated. Strong national and global competition for products and services online demands strong branding and a correlation between brand and domain name in order to get customers to the right website.
For example, say you are looking for the website of Peet's Coffee & Tea, a well-known coffee supplier. Rather than use a search engine to hunt for sites related to the terms "coffee" or "tea," you probably would first just type "peets.com" into your browser. Your guess would be right, and you would go right to the Peet's website. Had Peet's not used its brand name for its domain name, you would have been at least temporarily diverted from your search. And if you share the general lack of patience of many Internet users, you might have given up. By using its strong brand name for its domain name, Peet's can rest assured that anyone looking for the brand will quickly end up at its website.
Using the company name for your domain name also allows you to keep whatever goodwill you have built in the name. Goodwill simply means the good relationship you have with your customers because you provide exceptional service or a truly wonderful product.
You may decide, however, that a short, catchy and easy-to-remember name is a good alternative (or addition) to just using your existing business name. For example, the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas, sells fruitcakes and has for many years—but when it came time to go online, the owners chose fruitcake.com as their domain name.
Still another option is to use only part of your business name, or an abbreviated form of it, as your domain name. (You're limited to 26 characters total, remember.) For example, Turners Outdoorsman, a retail sporting goods store, uses turners.com; Motley Fool (investment advice) uses fool.com, and Kelley Blue Book (wholesale and retail prices for used cars) is kbb.com. AskJeeves, a well-known search engine, uses ask.com. Short domain names are generally preferable to long ones, because many Internet users type the domain names into their browsers rather than relying on their list of favorite or bookmarked sites, portals (Yahoo!, AOL), or special interest sites that offer collections of links for parents, seniors, investors or other groups.
Of course, you may want to use another name altogether (like the bakery that chose fruitcake.com), especially if your business name is long. For instance, a well-known bookstore chain in Northern California called A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books uses bookstore.com as its domain name. And Finer Times Market Place, an antique dealer, uses classicwatch.com.
As mentioned, generic domain names make weak trademarks because they merely describe the goods or services offered on the website (for example, healthanswers.com, drugstore.com, coffee.com), but excellent domain names because they work to get people to the website. So, depending on how well known your existing business name is, it may make sense to use two names. Create a new and descriptive domain name, and use your existing business name both as a second domain name and to sell goods or services on the website itself. The rest of this chapter gives more tips on choosing a good name.